State v. Kalathakis
| Decision Date | 04 June 1990 |
| Docket Number | No. 89-K-1199,89-K-1199 |
| Citation | 563 So.2d 228 |
| Parties | STATE of Louisiana v. Anita KALATHAKIS. 563 So.2d 228 |
| Court | Louisiana Supreme Court |
David J. Williams, Lake Charles, for State of La., defendant-applicant.
Richard P. Ieyoub, Dist. Atty., Elizabeth S. McCall, Beth Conrad, Asst. Dist. Attys., Patricia Minaldi, for Anita Kalathakis, plaintiff-respondent.
The principal issue in this case is whether the felony-murder/manslaughter doctrine may be extended to include the killing by the police of defendant's co-perpetrator of the underlying felony, after the police had chased the co-perpetrator from the scene of the felony into the woods and had shot the co-perpetrator in retaliation to gunfire instigated by the co-perpetrator.
The police had suspected that Patrick Langley and defendant were manufacturing methamphetamine in the mobile home where they resided together. On February 7, 1987, a police informant purchased a controlled dangerous substance from Langley. The following night fourteen police officers, divided into two assault teams, went to the mobile home to conduct a raid.
The members of the first team, accompanied by two trained police dogs, approached the trailer on foot through the woods. These officers observed a heavily armed man, later identified as Larry Calhoun, leave the rear of the trailer and walk toward a shed. The dogs with Calhoun apparently sensed the police dogs and began barking, alerting Calhoun to the presence of the police. Calhoun directed his flashlight toward the officers. When the officers identified themselves, Calhoun began running down the driveway just as the members of the second assault team were approaching.
Three officers and the dogs pursued Calhoun. During the chase, at a point approximately one-quarter of a mile from the trailer, Calhoun turned quickly and shot one of the officers. The other officers returned the fire and killed Calhoun.
In the meantime the second assault team approached the trailer down the main driveway. Trooper Dan Daughtery entered the trailer first, shouting, "Police coming in". Deputy Dale Folds, looking through the bedroom window, saw defendant with her finger on the trigger of a pistol raised above her head, standing in a "combat stance" as if she were waiting to shoot whoever entered the room. Knowing that police officers had entered the trailer, Deputy Folds broke the bedroom window and ordered defendant to drop the weapon. Trooper Daughtery, who was making his way through the trailer, heard the glass breaking and the shouted order to drop the gun. Daughtery ran toward the sound, kicked in the bedroom door, and found defendant.
Daughtery then heard noises coming from the bathroom that could only be entered through the bedroom in which he found defendant. He kicked in the bathroom door and saw Langley pouring a dark brown liquid down the bathtub drain. Daughtery noticed a heavy chemical odor which he recognized as that produced during the manufacture of methamphetamine. Both Langley and defendant were arrested.
Langley pleaded guilty to manufacturing methamphetamine. He subsequently testified at defendant's trial that defendant did not assist in the operation and threatened to leave him when she learned he was involved in manufacturing the drug.
Defendant was convicted of attempted manufacturing of methamphetamine, manslaughter of co-perpetrator Calhoun, and attempted manslaughter of Deputy Daughtery. 1 She was sentenced to concurrent terms of five, four and two years respectively.
The court of appeal affirmed the convictions. 543 So.2d 1004. As to the conviction for the manslaughter of Calhoun, the court concluded that Calhoun died as a direct result of defendant's acts of attempting to manufacture drugs. The court reasoned that the drug manufacturers' arming themselves, as part of the overall scheme, set into motion a chain of events which created a great risk of harm and that Calhoun's death was "within the ambit of reasonably foreseeable possibilities". 543 So.2d at 1008.
Defendant's application for certiorari was granted to review the felony-manslaughter conviction. 548 So.2d 1240.
La.Rev.Stat.Ann. 14:31, which defines the crime of manslaughter, provides in part:
Manslaughter is:
....
(2) A homicide committed, without any intent to cause death or great bodily harm.
(a) When the offender is engaged in the perpetration or attempted perpetration of any felony not enumerated in Articles 30 or 30.1. or of any intentional misdemeanor directly affecting the person. (emphasis added).
Thus, a homicide, committed without any intent on the part of the accused to cause death or great bodily harm, may qualify as (1) felony-murder if the homicide occurs when the accused is engaged in certain dangerous felonies enumerated in La.Rev.Stat.Ann. 14:30 or 30.1, or as (2) felony-manslaughter if the homicide occurs when the accused is engaged in any other felony (which the Legislature apparently considered to be less dangerous).
In the present case the prosecutor's theory of felony-manslaughter was that a homicide (the killing of a human being by the act of another) occurred when defendant was engaged in the attempted manufacture of methamphetamine, although defendant had no intent to cause death or great bodily harm to Calhoun.
Defendant contends that Section 31(2)(a) does not encompass the killing by police officers of a co-perpetrator of the underlying felony one-fourth of a mile from the place where the underlying felony was committed. She relies on State v. Garner, 238 La. 563, 115 So.2d 855 (1959), in which the defendant, while involved in an argument with a bartender, lunged at the bartender with a knife, prompting the bartender to shoot a pistol at the defendant in self defense. The bullet missed the defendant, but struck and killed an innocent bystander. This court reversed the defendant's conviction of manslaughter, holding that the manslaughter statute did not make the defendant responsible for a killing resulting from a self-defensive act committed by the attacked person. The court indicated that the actual killer must be the defendant or a principal with the defendant in the perpetration of the underlying felony.
On the other hand, the prosecutor contends that the theory of proximate cause used in State v. Statum, 390 So.2d 886 (La.1980), cert. denied, 450 U.S. 969, 101 S.Ct. 1489, 67 L.Ed.2d 619 (1981), should control this case. In Statum the thirteen-year old victim jumped from the defendant's moving car under the compulsion of an imminent sexual assault by the defendant and died the next day of multiple injuries sustained in the fall. The court, noting that the victim jumped from the car "because of the attempted carnal knowledge of a juvenile violation", held that the defendant was properly convicted of manslaughter. Although the victim's act of jumping from the car caused her death, the defendant's conduct was the precipitating cause of her jumping.
In the present case the court of appeal distinguished the Garner decision on the basis that the victim in Garner was an innocent bystander, while the victim in this case was a co-perpetrator of the underlying felony. However, the identity of the victim is hardly a sufficient factor to justify refusing to apply Garner in this case. Accordingly, the prosecutor urges that we consider modifying Garner and adopting a less restrictive theory of causation in felony-murder/manslaughter cases.
Criminal conduct in Louisiana consists of (1) conduct producing criminal consequences combined with criminal intent, (2) conduct producing criminal consequences without any requirement of criminal intent, and (3) criminal negligence. La.Code Crim.Proc. art. 8. Intentional crimes traditionally have consisted of two elements, the physical element of act or conduct and the mental element of intent. The felony-murder doctrine originally applied to the intent element of a crime in that the doctrine allowed the mens rea of the underlying felony to provide the malice necessary to transform an unintended homicide into a murder. 2 W. Clark & W. Marshall, A Treatise on the Law of Crimes Sec. 10.07 (7th ed. 1967); W. LaFave & A. Scott, Criminal Law Secs. 71, 79 (1972); R. Perkins, Criminal Law Secs. 37, 44 (2d ed. 1969). On the other hand, the physical element of the defendant's act or conduct is not encompassed by the felony-murder doctrine, but involves a separate question of causation. The additional element of the defendant's act or conduct in causing criminal consequences must still be proved.
A causal relation between the defendant's conduct and the harm for which the prosecutor seeks to impose criminal sanctions is an essential element of every crime. Causation is a question of fact which has to be considered in the light of the totality of circumstances surrounding the ultimate harm and its relation to the actor's conduct. M. Bassiouni, Substantive Criminal Law, Secs. 5, 5.2 (1978). A defendant should not be held responsible for remote and indirect consequences which a reasonable person could not have foreseen as likely to have flowed from his conduct or from those consequences which would have occurred regardless of his conduct. Id.
Some jurisdictions have adopted the Garner rationale and limited the felony-murder and the felony-manslaughter doctrines to cases in which the conduct that caused the death was the conduct of the defendant, or of his accomplice or confederate, done in furtherance of the design to commit the felony. 3 See Commonwealth v. Redline, 391 Pa. 486, 137 A.2d 472 (1958), which held that the doctrine did not apply when shots by policemen returning the defendant's fire during an armed robbery killed the defendant's co-perpetrator. The court, stating that "[d]eath must be a consequence of the felony ... and not merely coincidence", noted that the...
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State v. Small
... ... State v. Myers, 991849 (La.4/11/00), 760 So.2d 310; State v. Kalathakis, 563 So.2d 228 (La.1990); and State v. Garner, 238 La. 563, 115 So.2d 855 (1959). In the context of felony murder, this issue arises most often when death results from the responses of third parties [100 So.3d 807] fleeing, resisting, or pursuing a defendant. In Garner, this Court adopted the ... ...
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State v. Victor, 15–KA–339.
...of events that ultimately result in the deaths of others. State v. Myers, 99–1849 (La.4/11/00), 760 So.2d 310 ; State v. Kalathakis, 563 So.2d 228 (La.1990) ; State v. Garner, 238 La. 563, 115 So.2d 855 (1959). In the present case, defendant argues that the evidence was insufficient to conv......
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State v. Myers
...addresses itself to the lawmakers." 238 La. at 587, 115 So.2d at 864. The holding of Garner was revisited by this court in State v. Kalathakis, 563 So.2d 228 (La.1990). In Kalathakis, the police conducted a raid on a mobile home shared by the defendant and a man named Patrick Langley who we......
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State v. Trung Le
...State v. Small, 2011–2796, p. 12, 100 So.3d 797, 806 (citing State v. Myers, 99-1849 (La. 4/11/00), 760 So.2d 310 ; State v. Kalathakis, 563 So.2d 228 (La. 1990) ; and Garner, supra. ) ).43 Garner, 115 So.2d at 864.44 Neal , supra.45 See Garner, supra., Small, supra.46 The State does not ad......